Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
But this…
She sounded scary.
I’d never seen her this way before.
“I, uh, I…” Mary Beth stuttered.
“Wait outside,” she ordered.
Mary Beth stumbled, then nodded. “Okay, sure. Okay.”
Then she left, leaving me reeling.
“Athena Grace Murphy, look at me,” Garnett ordered.
She punctuated that order by squeezing my hand.
I had no other choice but to turn her way.
“What was that?” she asked. “How?”
I knew what she was asking.
I dropped my eyes from her intense gaze, then dropped into my seat beside Gable’s bed.
I dropped my forehead to his hand—his blissfully warm hand—and drew in a few shaky breaths before I picked up my head again and blurted out the entire story.
Garnett listened to it all, not saying a word.
She waited until I was done before she said, “I don’t know what to say.”
I didn’t either.
The man at my side however…
“Kick her out,” he urged. “Tell the hospital she’s not welcome here, and don’t allow her in anymore. We’ll deal with her when we are out of this place.”
I whipped my head around to see Gable’s eyes wide open.
And angry.
Holy hell, was he angry.
“Gable,” I breathed. “How are you feeling?”
“Angry as hell,” he admitted. “That fuckin’ bitch.”
“Language, Gable Buchanan Carter,” Garnett snapped.
Gable’s lips twitched, but he didn’t smile.
“I’m talking about your chest,” I hovered my hand over said chest. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Sore. Every time I take a breath, I feel like I’m stabbing myself in the heart with a screw driver. But other than that…” he trailed off.
I smiled. “They have you on a morphine pump, but the last time they were in here filling it up, you told them to fuck all the way off with their pain meds. So they put you on different ones that you have to ask for.”
“Could you ask?” He smiled.
I got up to do that and he caught my hand. “Not you. She might still be out there.”
I nodded and sat back down.
Garnett pressed the button instead of leaving, asking a nurse to bring Gable some pain meds.
Just as I was about to say more, the door pushed open, and Maven and baby Lola pushed inside along with Hollis and Dalia, Ande and Tex, Shayne and Cillian, and Ellodie and Cam.
“Where are the rest?” I found myself asking.
“At a play date at the circus,” Hollis laughed. “Dalia wanted to stay, but she has a checkup for an ear infection she had last week. You’re awake!”
“I’m awake,” Gable confirmed.
“Why do you look angry?” Ande asked. “Does it have to do with that woman crying in the hall?”
“Yes,” he snapped.
“What’s going on?” Ellodie asked.
Maven placed the baby in my arms, and I melted.
Lola was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
As in, no baby could compare.
Sure, I might be partial, but she was just so gorgeous.
The entire Semyonov family agreed with my sentiments. They’d told me so last night when they’d all visited before heading back to Tennessee for a few weeks.
“Oh, I brought you this,” Maven said as she pulled my computer out of her diaper bag. “I went by to get you another change of clothes like you asked and to help the movers know where to put all your boxes and things. Your computer was going crazy with the dings, so I caught it up for you as I left.”
I smiled and put it down on the end of the bed.
Gable squeezed my hand and said, “Boxes?”
My face blushed.
“She moved herself in,” Garnett laughed.
“Someone has to take care of you when you get out of this place,” I flushed, not meeting his eyes.
He squeezed my hand and it was only then that I realized Garnett had let my hand go only for Gable to grab it.
I looked at him and his eyes were gleaming.
Despite the pain, he looked happy to hear the news.
“Good,” he winked. “That solves one thing.”
“What else needs to be solved?” Shayne asked. “I like problem solving.”
“The engagement ring I have in my sock drawer somehow needs to find its way to me. Also…” He paused as I continued to flush, this time a violent red.
“That’s solved already, too,” Shayne giggled.
“Is it now?” he asked, sounding curious. “And how is that?”
“To get all the information without having Garnett and Germaine here to give her permission to hear it, she had to be your fiancée. Surprise.” Ellodie giggled.
I gave him a sheepish smile and picked up my hand. “I was just…”
“Perfect.” His eyes gleamed. “Though maybe when I can get down on one knee, I’ll still ask you.”
“I’ll say yes,” I promised. “I’ll take it off when we get out of here.”
“Absolutely not,” he replied. “You’ll keep that on until you die.”
A feeling of excitement bloomed in my chest.
“Well, what’s the other problem solving?” Mom asked.
His eyes narrowed on the door. “Get rid of that bitch of a sister so Athena doesn’t have to deal with her ever again.”